Category: Treatment

It is estimated that up to 54% of couples with infertility experience a high level of stress, anxiety, and depression before and/or during fertility treatment. It is incredibly common to need additional help when going through fertility treatment, which is why I encourage the use of complementary stress reduction techniques with my patients. But sometimes yoga, acupuncture, and mediation isn’t enough and more help is needed. The most commonly prescribed antidepressant is a group of medications called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

A recent study compared women on SSRIs going through IVF to women who were not on antidepressants. They found that the embryo health and IVF outcomes did not differ between the groups. This suggests that, from a fertility standpoint, there is no reason to avoid using an antidepressant if you need it.

Fertility treatment is hard enough. There is no reason to suffer through poorly controlled anxiety and/or depression while going through fertility treatment. If you need additional help, please reach out. The best way to have a happy healthy family is to start with a healthy mom before conception. You are not alone.

Take home points:

The diagnosis and treatment of infertility is stressful

It’s common to struggle with stress, anxiety, and depression at any phase of treatment

Phthalates are a group of chemicals found in many types of plastics in a variety of consumer products. We have previously discussed the negative impact of phthalates on fertility. A recent study adds to this: phthalates negatively impact an IVF cycle. Women are disproportionally impacted by phthalate exposure.

In this study, women with high levels of phthalates had fewer eggs at the time of egg retrieval, fewer fertilized eggs, and fewer top quality embryos. This group suggests that DEHP, a specific type of phthalate, may impair early IVF outcomes, specifically targeting the oocyte. If you are thinking of undergoing IVF this year, I encourage you to investigate what you can do to optimize your IVF cycle by limited your exposure to phthalates!

One of the best parts of my job, is getting to know individuals and hearing their “story.” I love learning about occupations, interests, and their goals for a family. I spend a lot of time listening to my patients so that I can fully grasp all that my patients have been through leading up to their visit with me.

I have to be honest: I’m saddened by how hard my patients are on themselves. There is so much unnecessary blame and justifying in fertility. For example, a common thing I hear can be something like the following: “I love coffee, but after trying to conceive for so long I gave it up. I miss it but I’m willing to give up anything in order to prove that I’m ready for a family.” Does this sound familiar to you? First off, you can drink coffee. Secondly, please try to be kind to yourself.

As a self-diagnosed perfectionist, I will be the first to admit that I have very high expectations that I set for myself. When I fail to meet a certain goal that I’ve set for myself as a physician or a mom, I beat myself up about it. My advice to you: try kindness instead. Pretend a friend told you the exact same story. How would you react to your friends’ tribulations?

Life is stressful and that won’t change, even once you get pregnant. We can’t control the stressors in our life but we CAN control how we react to them. So please, consider being kind to yourselves and help me support you through this fertility journey.

One of the greatest challenges in reproductive medicine is trying to figure out ways to improve pregnancy rates for women that produce a limited number of eggs. Other posts on this blog[u1] address various steps to try to optimize/improve egg quality[u2] . But new data suggests that the use of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) can improve embryo formation and more importantly increase a woman’s chance of becoming pregnant. Traditionally, ICSI has been used to overcome male factor infertility. Over the last several years, some centers have included it in all of their treatment cycles as a means of maximizing fertilization. Some experts criticized this practice since it was based upon a theory rather than clinical proof of an improved outcome. In fact, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine has a Patient Fact Sheet [u3] that describes the guidelines for the use of ICSI (last revised in 2008). Recently a large study attempted to settle this debate on whether or not ICSI should be used in women considered to be “poor responders” to fertility therapy.

One of the limitations of previous studies on “diminished ovarian reserve (DOR)” was the lack of an agreed upon definition of how to diagnose this condition. In 2011 an international meeting was held to form a consensus [u4] on the identification of “poor response to ovarian stimulation.” Their goal was to improve the design of future studies and provide practical guidelines as well as assist doctors in the diagnosis of this condition. To meet diagnostic criteria it was agreed that a woman must have at least two of the following:

The recent study [u6] referred to in this blog post followed over 1000 IVF patients that had failed on a previous cycle and met the new criteria for “poor responders.” These patient/couples completed nearly 3000 total cycles of IVF with ICSI. They found that including ICSI—despite a normal sperm count—improved the ongoing pregnancy rate by 40%. Another noteworthy fact is that this study was performed in Israel where IVF is a fully covered health benefit for all citizens. This made it possible for patients to continue treatment without concern of cost thereby removing a “selection bias.” The potential benefit of ICSI—in the absence of a male factor—does make sense. Some studies show that women with DOR have a thicker coating on the egg making it more difficult for a healthy sperm to enter. Selecting a sperm for use in ICSI may also reduce the possibility of an abnormal sperm fertilizing an otherwise limited number of healthy eggs. Whatever the reason, most women with a poor response to fertilization are immediately directed to use donor eggs. However, this study found that ~35% of these “poor responders” achieved a successful pregnancy within 5 to 7 IVF attempts. The bottom line is that couples that would otherwise have been discouraged from completing a second attempt went on to have a baby at least 1/3 of the time.

So discuss with your doctor whether or not you may benefit from including ICSI in your next IVF cycle. In doing so, be careful to ask if there is an additional charge for this service. At CNY Fertility[r7] Center, we are pleased to offer this augmented fertilization technique to all of our patients as part of the standard IVF cycle (included in the standard fee). Now we have more data supporting this recommendation.

Our society puts a priority on reproduction. That makes sense since it is hardwired into our brain. Unfortunately, that value often results in the assumption that women that choose to wait and begin their family later in life are somehow selfish or narcissistic for “wanting to have it all.” I am pleased to share that a recent report made great strides in dispelling this myth.

A British psychologist recently performed a thorough review [r1] of women’s motivations and situations resulting in “delayed motherhood.” In fact, she even took exception with the term “delayed” because it so strongly suggests that it is a choice that women are consciously making to wait until their late thirties or early forties to become pregnant. Instead, she found that it more often women are responding to their situation. Her research revealed that many women today are having babies later as a result of strategic decision making, extensive negotiations or response to their life’s circumstances. Better still women today have more options to preserve their fertility.

Techniques [r2] are available today to more efficiently freeze and store unfertilized eggs or viable embryos. Embryo freezing has been available for several decades but the efficiency of the process is much greater today. Egg freezing now makes it possible for women to preserve their unfertilized eggs when they are more plentiful and at their healthiest but actually delay fertilization and pregnancy until the time is right. Recently, the technique for freezing unfertilized eggs has been refined so much and the availability of the procedure [r3] has become so readily available that it is no longer considered experimental. So as more women speak out [r4] about their own choices and empower others to do so, it is rewarding to be able to meet their needs with more treatment options.